Adam Scott mounted a late charge as Rory McIlroy ended his 16-month title drought on the US PGA Tour with a stirring victory in the Deutsche Bank Championship.
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Paul Casey, of England, lines up a putt on the 17th hole during the third round of the Deutsche Bank Championship golf tournament Sunday in Norton, Mass.
“The way I’m looking at it is, how good a tournament would this be to win, being 4 over through three”, said McIlroy, who is tied for seventh, 6 shots behind leader Paul Casey.
He is chasing the second PGA Tour victory of his career, his last win coming at the Houston Open in 2009 where he beat J.B. Holmes in a playoff.
“It was more of the same great ball-striking”, Casey told Golf Channel. “It’s been a great lesson for me this week not to get down on myself, to stay patient”. And, then, having recovered to make a charge over the weekend, McIlroy still went into the final round playing catch-up on Casey.
“It is fantastic to think how I started this tournament and what was going through my mind after three holes, and then all of a sudden (I’m) standing here with a trophy”.
“I started to roll in a few putts, and when you do that your confidence builds, and you feel like you can go out and shoot scores like I did today”, he said. Another birdie at the 12th gave him the outright lead for the first time and, although he dropped a shot at the 17th, he made a brilliant up-and-down from the greenside bunker for birdie at the par-5 18.
But McIlroy could have been one shot better, after his second shot on the par-five final hole very almost went in for an albatross.
One week after working with a new putting coach and changing putters, results came quickly for McIlroy.
A tally of 26 putts in his five-under par round testified to that confidence building up for McIlroy.
The final group -Casey (73), Smylie Kaufman (76) and Brian Harman (77) – were a combined 13 over for the round.
McIlroy made seven birdies, including three on putts of 18, 10 and 22 feet.
“It’s awesome in this game how things can change so quickly from being 4 over after three holes”.
Rory McIlroy believes his putting is improving as he savoured his first win on the PGA Tour in 2016.
McIlroy began the tournament in 38th place in the FedEx standings and now stands at No. 4.
“It is nice to get that first win in the States this year and hopefully this momentum I can obviously bring on to the next couple of weeks and ultimately the Ryder Cup to help team Europe win another”. But the last 69 holes at TPC Boston were a completely different story.
Tom Watson shot 67 on his 67th birthday to tie for 26th.
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However Baddeley and Leishman will both need to make a major statement this week if they are to be among the top 30 players who advance to the season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta.
